wooden coat

plural wooden coats · alternative wooden overcoat · alternative wooden surtout

1. figurativelyinformalSynonym of coffin.

   A wooden coat, six feet of earth, Is all that he deserves.

   1916, Massachusetts Reformatory (Concord, Mass.), Our Paper - Volume 32, page 634

   3 more examples

   Let all those that are suffering from any complaint or disease, and who are anxious to regain health and escape a wooden coat consult an experienced and successful practitioner

   1946, Roche Review - Volumes 11-12, page 32

   Each of us will want one, be he beggar, policeman, prince or boyar ; everyone, sooner or later, will parade in such a wooden coat.

   1946, Alekseĭ Chapygin, Stepan Razin; A novel, page 93

   'My next goddam coat,' he said, 'will be a wooden coat'. . . . Now he was being measured for his wooden coat,

   1972, George Mackay Brown, Greenvoe: a novel, page 224

   Synonyms: coffin